Biography of Al Muhsin ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib (Not Confirmed)
The Muhsin, son of Ali ibn Abi Talib from his wife Fatimah al-Zahra, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, is a subject of dispute regarding his existence among both the Shia and the Sunni. Those who believe in his birth unanimously agree that he died at a young age, but there is also a difference of opinion concerning the year of his birth and death.
The Existence of al-Muhsin ibn Ali
Shia Muslims have differed in their beliefs about the existence of a son named al-Muhsin to Lady Fatimah al-Zahra, and a similar difference has also occurred among Sunni Muslims.
The Name and Birth of al-Muhsin ibn Ali
Both Sunni and Shia Muslims who believe in the birth of al-Muhsin agree that the Prophet Muhammad named him Muhsin after naming his brothers Hasan and Husayn. However, the Sunni belief is that he was named during the lifetime of the Prophet after his birth, while Shia Muslims believe that he was named during the lifetime of the Prophet while still in the womb and that the Prophet passed away before his birth.
Death of Al-Muhsin ibn Ali
Al-Muhsin ibn Ali was the youngest child of Ali ibn Abi Talib and Fatima al-Zahra, which made him a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. Because he died before reaching childhood, later historians have only short, sometimes contradictory, notices about him.
Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani and his student al-Sakhawi both write that Al-Muhsin “died young during the lifetime of the Prophet”. Al-Dhahabi repeats the same wording in “Siyar A‛lam al-Nubala” and Ibn Kathir in “Al-Bidaya wa’l-Nihaya” cites it as well. Earlier narrative historians such as al-Baladhuri, along with legal-hadith compilers like al-Bayhaqi, also list Al-Muhsin among Fatima’s children and note only that he “died young”. Placing the death within the Prophet’s lifetime fixes the latest possible date at 11 AH / 632 CE, when Muhammad himself died. No Sunni source links the event to violence; it is treated as a natural infant death, probably in Medina.
Ibn Hazm of Cordoba writes that Al-Muhsin “died very young, at the time of his birth”. Al-Manawi, Ibn al-Athir, and others say he “died as a suckling infant” and left no descendants. Their brevity shows that, in mainstream Sunni memory, the death was neither controversial nor connected to later political disputes.
On the other hand, some Shia narrators claim that he was killed in the incident of the door being pushed upon his mother, Fatimah al-Zahra, causing her injury.
